Surprise, surprise – Operation Brock is back on again until the 22nd December. It’s beyond infuriating.
Brock jams up our roads when traffic grinds to a halt, lorries cut through villages, and families face delays getting to work. It was meant to be only for emergencies, now it’s a regular headache.
I’ve continued pushing Kent Resilience Forum to get on with “Mini Brock” – moving the start point to between junction 8 and 9, instead of at junction 8 – and I’ll report back as soon as I hear more.
I also pushed for it with National Highways in Parliament last month, who were supportive of Mini Brock. I raised lorries cutting through villages like Bearsted with the government minister, and he said any HGVs caught trying to avoid Brock instructions can be stopped by enforcement officers and subjected to a fine.
Clearly, they have to have the enforcement officers out and about to put that into practice. If you notice this happening again and no officers there to stop it, please let KCC – and me – know.
As for the long-term solution to Brock, I had a meeting with the Port of Dover’s Chief Executive to get an update on expanding HGV queuing space at Dover. This would help reduce how often Brock is deployed. He’s in the process of unlocking government funding for the project, and I offered him my help to get this work moving faster. We’ll be meeting again in the new year.
We must keep the pressure up to find a better solution. Please do sign and share my petition below to stop Brock.
The more people who do, the louder our message will be.
